Clara Dare Ivankova, an independent and strong-willed attorney, has always been the black sheep in her old Southern family. But when she returns home to North Carolina's beautiful Crystal Coast to attend her Uncle Jack's funeral, she begins to realize that while she has always managed to avoid most of the family drama, she may have unintentionally sacrificed too much. When Clara Dare is summoned back home a month later, she finds her Aunt Eloise in a fierce legal battle over Uncle Jack's estate. New details about Uncle Jack's secret life arise that, combined with Clara Dare's cousins' strange behavior and the discovery of a series of cryptic journal entries made by the infamous pirate, Blackbeard, just months before his capture in 1718, soon draw Clara Dare into a race against time with a ruthless killer. With the help of her childhood friend, Detective Tara Thompson, her brother-in-law, Vasek, and a contingent of her mother's friends who are privy to all of the local gossip, Clara Dare must get to the bottom of the nearly 300-year-old mystery of Blackbeard's treasure before another body is found and priceless artifacts are lost forever. North Carolina native Chessen Parker attended Meredith College and Duke University School of Law. This is the first book in her amateur sleuth series. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her partner, David, and their cats where she enjoys volunteering and of course, writing mysteries. Blackbeard's Curse A CRYSTAL COAST MYSTERY By Chessen Parker iUniverse, Inc. Copyright © 2009 Carolina Girl Prose, LLC All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4401-8207-5 Chapter One Strange Bed Fellows * * * Wednesday, September 17th Johnny sat on the brown leather couch in Tiffany's living room next to his brother. He was staring down at the unfolded stack of papers sitting in front of him on the window-topped oak coffee table that housed a large brass porthole from the wreck Schurz . He and Tommy had come to Tiffany's after she called to tell them that she had their father's new will and wanted to give them each a copy to read. Johnny still couldn't believe what he had just read. His father had written a new will giving Tiffany one half of each of the businesses and the rest of his estate. Tommy was scowling, looking straight ahead. He hated the thought of having to negotiate with Tiffany just to maintain what was his. And Johnny's. His father had really turned the tables on them with that will. And he knew that Tiffany had full knowledge and complete access to something that was far more valuable to them. Tiffany broke the silence. "We're all on the same page, I take it?" Tiffany was still leaning back, relaxed and waiting in a dark coral, camel, and turquoise plaid chair. She had enjoyed watching their faces as they read, and re-read, pertinent provisions of their father's last will and testament. Tiffany was only two years older than Tommy, and she knew that her age had always been an issue with both Tommy and Johnny. She didn't underestimate the resentment that the power she now had had intensified. But she couldn't afford to have them ruin her plans, either. Tiffany had been planning how she would deal with them since she had left the Coast Guard station after seeing Jack's lifeless body on Monday morning. Tiffany continued. "You know you need me. Not only do I know where the pieces that were recovered over the summer are hidden, and have the only keys to where they are stored, but, I'm the one that arranged the sale of a few pieces for over seven and a half million." Tiffany leaned forward and reached over to the coffee table for her beer. "That is how I got your father back. Jack had no idea how to unload any of it, but he definitely wanted to cash in. I found a discreet buyer who agreed to keep the artifacts' providence confidential." "When did he tell you about what he found in Stumpy Point Bay?" Tommy asked with his jaw clenched. "Dad said only the three of us knew." "I followed Jack and Ashley last spring." She took a deep swing of her bottled beer. "What?" Johnny couldn't believe his ears. Had Tiffany been stalking his father? Did she follow him out to Stumpy Point Bay? And Ashley was with him? More importantly, did this mean that both woman had known about the treasure all along? "I wanted to catch him in the act. I was tired of his lies," she hissed. Tiffany leaned forward over the arm of her chair and looked out through the French doors into her backyard. The deck was still littered with containers holding Jack's other finds from the summer. He usually spent the off-season cleaning and preparing them for the small museum in the dive center. "He told me he needed to make a clean break from Eloise before he died. He and I had seemed to be growing apart and I had been concerned, but there he was, finally ready to divorce Eloise. I assumed, of course, that we would get married." Johnny sneered across the table. "That was only wishful thi